Summary

When people say that good girls always fall for bad boys, they always assume it's an exaggeration, but in Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles that is exactly what happens. Brittany and Alex couldn't be more different. When their paths cross on the first day of senior year at Fairfeild High School, neither of them expected to become so close. Brittany Ellis is portrayed as the "Golden Girl". The girl every girls wants to be. She's on the pom squad, has the perfect boyfriend, and the overall perfect life. Or so everyone thinks. Alex Fuentes is the "Bad boy" of the school. Everyone is afraid of him and no one wants to mess with him. This is because he is in a gang called, The Latino Blood. This is the same gang Alex's dad was involved in when he was shot. Alex's provides for his family, is mom and his two brothers Luis and Carlos. He spends the time he's not with the Blood working to put food on his family's table. No one sees who Alex really is inside his tough exterior. When Alex and Brittany get permanently pared up in Chemistry class neither one of them can stand each other. Alex's friends keep giving him crap about how good looking Brittany is and that he should go for her. So, his friends bet him that he cannot hook up with Brittany before the school year is over. Alex starts to find it hard to take advantage of Brittany when he actually starts falling for her. One day when Brittany is upset and breaks up with her boyfriend at a party she runs into Alex at the beach, where she ended up getting drunk and had to stay with Alex's friend Isabel.

As Brittany and Alex become closer, they start to let each other into one another world. Brittany meets Alex's family and finds out that he is the provider. She finds out that he is not the bad guy that everyone thinks he is. Alex finds out that Brittany's life is not perfect. If anything it is far from it. She has a mom who judges everything she wears, an absent father, and a sister who is battling cerebral palsy. Brittany does not like that Alex is in a gang, and when Brittany and Alex become official Alex wants to leave the blood, not just for Brittany but for his family. The only way you can leave a gang is to be beaten and if you live then you are free. In this book you see the struggles the two face just to be together, and the extremes one would go through to be with the one they love.